Sunday, August 1, 2010

Dinner for Schmucks

This mornings service really made me think today. We talked about how the Romans had different class system. Basically there were the well to do people, and then the poorer among them. The poor people were not invited to sit at the table with the aristocracy of the day.
When the apostle Paul heard that this practice was being done during the Lord's Supper It upset him. Paul wrote that He hears there are divisions among you, and even though it is hard to believe to be true, there it is. (1 Cor 11 The Msg) He was upset mostly because Christians were basically excluding those that were or a lower class. It is almost like the title of the new movie with Steve Carrell "Dinner for Schmucks" I mean basically the poor were invited to the Supper but really only to be looked down on. They had to come late while all of the good stuff was gone because the wealthy of that day came early and ate and drank it all.
This got me thinking about how we as Christians today tend to look down upon others. Maybe we invite them to church or give them a tract and say come but we never really invest our lives in thiers. We fulfill our "duty" but thats as far as we are willing to take it. Or we may look down upon the culture in which we live as if we are better because we are Christians. We think, we are above those that are downtrodden around us. Many times as Jesus said "We spend so much time looking at the speck in our brothers eye that we miss the plank jutting out of our own eye." We think by going certain places and avoiding others that we are holy and "set-apart". It seems when we look at Jesus example the places he frequented were places where those that needed him most would be. Maybe instead of judging those around us and looking down on them we should be offering a seat at the table next to us, because as Natalie Grant sings "There's No Such Thing as Perfect People"

1 comment:

Lonnie said...

Well said!